NETSCAPE PLACES SERVER SOFTWARE PRODUCTS ON THE INTERNET FOR FREE EVALUATION
The Server Test Drive program gives individuals and organizations wanting to publish information on the Internet or on corporate TCP/IP networks an easy way to try Netscape's server products, which offer the highest performance of available Web servers, easy configuration and maintenance, and enhanced customization capabilities. Users can also test the security features of Netscape Commerce Server, which includes the Secure Sockets Layer open security protocol for conducting commerce and secure communications over the net.
"Netscape Server Test Drive lets users easily experience the performance, security, and reliability that Netscape servers deliver for publishing and maintaining information on IP-based networks," said Marc Andreessen, co-founder and vice president of technology at Netscape. "By making the servers available for free evaluation, we hope to inspire more people to bring their information and businesses online and to spur the continuing, explosive growth of electronic publishing applications on global networks."
Netscape servers will be available beginning Friday, June 2, for downloading from Netscape's home page, which also contains product information, special promotions, OEM partner information, Netscape server newsgroups, and Netscape's online store. After filling out a short online registration form and agreeing to the licensing terms, users can download Netscape server software on the Internet for a variety of popular UNIX-based platforms including Digital OSF/1 Alpha, Hewlett-Packard's HP-UX, IBM's AIX operating systems, Silicon Graphics' IRIX, and Sun Solaris and SunOS. The Windows NT versions of the servers are scheduled to be available later in June for evaluation as well. When users complete their evaluations, they may choose to purchase the servers from any of Netscape's OEM or reseller partners including Digital Equipment, Silicon Graphics, or Sun Microsystems, or direct from Netscape.
The newly released 1.1 versions of Netscape Communications Server and Netscape Commerce Server allow companies or individuals to easily set up and maintain servers for electronic publishing and commerce applications on the Internet or corporate IP networks. The servers offer increased performance over other HTTP-based servers by reducing response times and making efficient use of available processor power and communications bandwidth. The Netscape Server Application Programming Interface (NSAPI) lets the servers be easily extended or integrated with custom applications or complementary products such as relational databases or full text search engines. The servers support open standards such as the HTTP protocol and Common Gateway Interface. They also provide an intuitive, self-documenting configuration and management user interface for easy set-up and maintenance.
Netscape Communications Server is designed for organizations that want to deliver multimedia content to various audiences, such as customer support information to existing customers, online marketing materials to potential customers, product development plans across company departments, or corporate policies to employees. It includes basic access authorization, which requires a user to specify user name and password to gain access. The server can dynamically scale to handle heavy loads or be extended to incorporate new features and functionality using the NSAPI.
Netscape Commerce Server, in addition to the above features, adds SSL to enable secure commerce to be conducted over global networks. Netscape Commerce Server is designed for online transactions and electronic data exchange, enabling users to send sensitive documents over networks in a secured manner.
The Server Test Drive program is available only in the United States. Users evaluating the servers can get technical help from Netscape's home pages and the Netscape Server Test Drive Newsgroup. Netscape Communications Server has an end user price of $1,495 for UNIX versions or $795 for the Windows NT version. Netscape Commerce Server has an end user price of $5,000 for UNIX versions and $2,995 for the Windows NT version. Users evaluating Netscape Commerce Server must purchase a signed digital certificate from RSA Data Security.
Netscape Communications Corporation is a premier provider of open software to enable people and companies to exchange information and conduct commerce over the Internet and other global networks. The company was founded in April 1994 by Dr. James H. Clark, founder of Silicon Graphics, Inc., a Fortune 500 computer systems company; and Marc Andreessen, creator of the NCSA Mosaic research prototype for the Internet. Privately held, Netscape Communications Corporation is based in Mountain View, California.
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